Lead-in Questions
7-1 Study the following sets of related words in Spanish:
agudo ‘sharp’ and agudeza ‘acuteness, sharpness’ vs. acuidad ‘sharpness’ (<ACŪTUM ‘sharp’)
agua and aguacero ‘downpour’ vs. acuático ‘aquatic’ and acuario ‘aquarium’ (<AQUAM ‘water’)
vida vs. vital ‘vital, lively’ and vitalidad ‘vitality’ (< VĪTAM ‘life’)
cabo ‘end piece’ vs. descapotable ‘convertible (car)’ (< CAPUT ‘head’)
Which consonant is different in the sets of words and how is it different? What might have caused this difference?
7-2 Pronounce the following sentence in English: Did you eat yet?
First pronounce it slowly and then pronounce it quickly.
What happens to the /d/ at the end of did and the /t/ at the end of eat when you pronounce this sentence quickly?
Write some other examples in English where this happens, like I want you to do it.
What happens when /d/ and /t/ come in contact with a following /j/, as in you and yet? Why does this happen?
This chapter introduces the consonant sounds of Spanish and how they have changed over time from Latin to Old Spanish to Modern Spanish. You will see that certain processes of change increased the number of consonants from Latin to Old Spanish and then other changes decreased their number from Old Spanish to Modern Spanish. Whereas the placement of stress was all-important in the evolution of vowels, in the evolution of consonants what is important is the position of the consonant within the word and whether it is a single consonant or part of a group of two or more consonants. After completing this chapter, you will be able to trace all the sound changes from Latin words to Spanish, except for the special vowel changes that are the topic of Chapter 8.
In the previous chapter, we saw that a vowel is a sound articulated without any obstruction or audible friction in the oral cavity. Consonants, on the other hand, are produced when the speaker creates a narrow channel or a complete closure in the mouth. The way the air flows or does not flow out of the mouth during the pronunciation of a consonant is called the mode of articulation (el modo de articulación). For example, the consonant /p/ is a stop (una oclusiva) because the flow of air is blocked completely.